The comments on the last blog post had reached over 100 comments so I thought a new post was in order. I saw RGIS recently at a local store. They were just finishing up there; the suitcases were being pulled out to the van. That's the first thing that I noticed, those suitcases on wheels. When I was still working for RGIS we had these soft-sided brown vinyl suitcases to hold machines, lasers, paper tags, etc. They had two handles and nothing else, and we would have to lug those suckers, one in each hand, out to the company van while the AM or DM was busy schmoozing up the store manager one last time. The polyester burgundy short-sleeved shirts were still in evidence, and the black pants as well. Ah, nostalgia.
Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to see them in action; I would have been curious to see the latest versions of the audit machines; do they still even call them that? I also got a chance to see WIS in their natural habitat as well, on a different day. Their blue shirts look a lot better than those tacky vests they used to wear a long time ago. They were using those all-in-one audit machines, with the laser built in, it looked like. I guess RGIS probably has those too, huh? It's been a long time. But not too long. :-)
It made me wonder though. Have any other ex-auditors ever encountered RGIS doing an inventory while you were out shopping? What was it like to bump into your former co-workers? Pleasant? Awkward? Hostile? Nauseating? Post your experiences (and anything else RGIS-related) here.
233 comments:
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For some time i have been playing some sort of ruse on some of you.
The thing is i have not been working for rgis for some time now. The persona i have used and even statistics are a collection of stories and accounts that i have heard from others still working there.
Honestly i have moved on to a job paying almost twice as much. I empathize with the people that remain. But alas my new job and life does not allow me to keep up with the ramblings of the RGIS rabble. With that i wish you all a fond farewell.
"I don't know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."
Well said, OTL. That is exactly the way it works in my district too. Depends on the aset level what kind of count they get.
As far as background and credit checks, they are sending out forms for people to sign. But, if this works like drug testing in my district, the people who agreed to the drug testing stay at home while those who refused are in the RX's because they are office favorites. My DM is going to scam this also. The poor shmucks who are not favorites will need to sign them or they won't work, while their favorites refuse to sign and they get put into the stores. My DM is the king of scamming accounts.
Well said, OTL. That is exactly the way it works in my district too. Depends on the aset level what kind of count they get.
As far as background and credit checks, they are sending out forms for people to sign. But, if this works like drug testing in my district, the people who agreed to the drug testing stay at home while those who refused are in the RX's because they are office favorites. My DM is going to scam this also. The poor shmucks who are not favorites will need to sign them or they won't work, while their favorites refuse to sign and they get put into the stores. My DM is the king of scamming accounts.
Anon 5:46
It is illegal to not issue a W2 by Jan. 31. If you don't get one, I'd talk to the local IRS office. Not sure what the penalty is. My guess is some sort of fine.
How did you file taxes without one? Just use the numbers off your last December check?
Well, I read this blog all the time but I have never written before. I've been with RGIS for years. I do it part time and have always had another job. First, about the Nov.-Dec. slow down. You can apply for unemployment. Let me tell you how the hours work in my district (new england) in those months. There are jobs available. But, a handful of people get them. You can have 3-4 stores a week on the schedule and the same people get them all. Our district manager who believes he sits at the right hand of God decides who gets to earn a living and who struggles around the holidays with no pay at all. They use the same people to help with training and hiring as they use in the stores so those people are still earning a decent paycheck. And, it isn't necessarily their best or brightest or most productive. It is their 'yes' people. We have some team leaders with very high success rates in their stores who are collecting unemployment. A lot of companies have slow down periods, but with working at other jobs my whole life, I know that when there is a slow down, all the employees suffer financially and equally. Not in this company or at least in my district. The DM decides who suffers and who doesn't. They play with peoples lives continuously and without a second thought. and, they have the audacity to send out letters telling the workers that there is a slowdown period now, that they will apportion the work fairly, and that they will be needed in January. Talk about insulting the intelligence of people. Everyone knows the work is not being apportioned fairly and only some are working every available hour.
As far as background/credit checks, I don't know about your districts but in mine, everything that goes through that office ends up in the field to be discussed by everyone. There is absolutely no confidentiality in this office. Why in the world would you subject yourself to a credit check, and if it comes back bad you still won't be able to work in the accounts requiring it, and now the whole office knows your credit history and is discussing with every tom, dick and harry?
To people thinking about applying for this job, think twice. They will promise you the moon, stars and sun to get you to work them through their busy months, then you will stop hearing from them.
And, I am not a lowly counter. I am an expert and could be a topgun but I prefer to stay at the level I am at.
And to the management staff in my district: Merry Christmas!! How in the world do you look yourself in the mirror or sleep at night with the way you play with peoples lives and their ultimate right to earn a living. Equal opportunit? Not in my district!!
Call the IRS.....tell them what's going on....RGIS can actually receive a hefty fine for that
About bin counts - if you are a newbie its really hard, because you have no clue what could be in there. If it's cheap stuff you count 1 layer/cluster and estimate the amount by multiplying. Same idea as in RX counts - you don't count every pill in a bottle.
Many people consider it's cheating, but if you have experience you can estimate withing 5-10% consistently. Bad thing if someone tells newbie to estimate - they will be off by a lot.
Best way to learn this technique - estimate 1st, then actually count and see how off you are. Then take a look why the number is so different - your eyesight will "learn" from that. Keep doing these self checks every now and then. After a few weeks/months you'll notice that you can tell how many items is in the bin/box right away, sometimes off by like 1 or 2. That's a really awesome feeling. I used to count groceries at 2K pieces/hour. Now I can pull out 5-8K depends on the store merchandising and I'm confident that my areas are within 5%.
Another thing that newer people don't understand is that often stores are open during financial counts. Example: you spend extra 10 mins to count every single can on that shelf, proud of yourself that you are super accurate. You move to the next area, customer comes in and... buys half a box of the soup - you are off by 6 cans right away.
Basic idea - the longer you count in the store - the less accurate you 1st counts become. Unless store utilizes a sophisticated system to track sales by department etc. Accuracy is most important, but use common sense - you don't need to dig in the isle if the difference between min/max possible items in there is less than 10%. Focus on things like correct price point (sales/regular), listen RM makes a sound (>$100 entry) - check if it makes sense or you just typed $27.99 instead of $2.79, plus make sure you are not missing shelves/counting extra.
Another thing about financial grocery counts - you'd be surprised, but some grocery managers will tell you the $ value of an area after looking at it for about 5 seconds. And that number would be just a few bucks off... I run hundreds of stores all over the place here in Canada and I've seen it happen many times. They just take a print out with comparison, walk by areas and mark you the numbers that are off just by looking at them. You check after and find out that people missed shelves, mistyped price etc. That's pretty impressive once you see that skill.
Anon.....
No W2 in 3 years! Rut Row Raggey...you owe the IRS! How have you been filing your taxes? Get somebody on this right away! The interest can be a killer!
otl, I once got caught at a Big Lots batching 10 cent skeins of embroidery floss...I had grabbed a handful, counted them, then figured out how many handfuls there were in the box. The store employee got upset and I had to recount the whole stupid box.
My batch count was off by 2...out of a hundred. Yeah, that was worth the 20 cents.
Anon, no w 2's that sounds odd. Have you made sure they have the right address to send tit to? Have you ever called HR? My experience has been, even though they have until January 30 to send them, I've usually gotten my w2 well before that.
RGIS Pshh please. I worked there for a year in a half till october of this year. And boy do i have horror stories. Stories upon stories. The funny thing is when i worked there it used to consume me. The anger of being treated so badly, the depression of that being my job, and the overall feeling that i was never gonna escape this hell. But once i decided to quit (and yes i was courtess enough to put my two weeks in) I for the first time in a long time saw the light. The hope that there is other life besides this company jerking you around day after day. Its not all the driving, the no guarenteed hours, or even the boring work that you do that kills people there. ITS THE CULTURE OF THE COMPANY! The feeling that you are no one and can be replaced in a seconds notice. NO ONE should have to feel that way and please if your not happy there just do the right thing and find a new job for your own sanity and get the hell out of there. P.S. D288 DM is the AntiChrist and she eats people souls for breakfast!!!
"The funny thing is when i worked there it used to consume me. The anger of being treated so badly, the depression of that being my job, and the overall feeling that i was never gonna escape this hell."
Freedom Fighter you captured my RGIS feelings perfectly. That's exactly how I felt much of the time there at RGIS. I used to be so resentful of the way I was treated, and others too. In my dist. favorites/pets were given all the plum inventories, as much as they wanted, while the rest of us had to fight to get some decent hours and paychecks. I used to get so frustrated with the unfairness of it all.
I also wanted to apologize for letting the comments pile up here without starting a new post. I know some people don't like scrolling through lots and lots of comments. I promise I'll start a new post soon.
Thank you to everyone who reads this blog and posts here too. It's been fun in a cathartic way, writing these posts, and interesting and comforting reading your comments. It's nice to know I wasn't the only one who was unhappy working for RGIS. And it's also nice to know that for some people RGIS wasn't a bad place to work, and that they enjoyed it. It makes me think that it isn't entirely hopeless. :-)
I swear, only RGIS can figure out a way to f#&k you over by paying you too much. As usual, I filed for unemployment when work slowed down. And as usual, as soon as RGIS was notified of that I had an AM call and throw a few more hours my way to to reduce my unemployment payout. Fine by me, I feel better earning the money.
But one of the extra jobs involved a couple of short days at a warehouse counting merchandise from a dozen or so closed stores. Several of them took less than 2 hours. I've done this before, it's always set up as a multi-store run, so I reported my hours and wages to unemployment based on that.
Turns out that this time it wasn't set up as an MSR, so I got paid the 2 hour minimum for the shorter counts. That means I had under-reported my wages, which not only fouled up my unemployment, it's also a crime.
I think I've managed to explain that to the unemployment people, but we'll see.
I know that a new entry will be written soon, but I got a new RGIS "U.S. Team Member Handbook," the first I remember getting since returning almost four years ago, that's not the point though. In the handbook, and I think this is a sensible policy btw, that employees of RGIS can write about the company on blogs and other social media, as long as its stated that what is written is your own opinion. Also I found something I thought was funny, a section that talks about going out to dinner after a store, and about drinking alcohol, as long as the one driving doesn't drink.
I can't imagine the group I work with going to a restaruant and drinking. Most of the time when a store is done, there's a consensus about wanting to just go home. We might stop somewhere and grab some food, but stopping somewhere and eating, forget about it, let alone ordering alcoholic beverages. The previous reflects the opinion of the author, and does not represent RGIS Inventory Specialists in any way.
hiya - formet 503 taker troll -
posting anon - just because i don't like to link in any accounts to anything... "OG from 503"
Q- how did you manage to leave ?
A - i just quit - didn't go back
good stories . there was a fight one time - death threats - etc - while on a travel day.
another - i gues the funny story - at least it was funny to others ---
there were a couple guys doing inv and one was on a stool - - e waited, and held it - just for the perfect moment - them BOOM - major fart to the face .. nice -
good ol rgis ...
we used to smoke a lot of dope -
and we would drink and get wasted on the travel days ...
i am ~shure~ there are more - but i am moving to LA on a couple days - from canada - no work visa - and going without a penny in my pocket.... should be fun.
So now that we won a law suit and they have paid out millions you are automagicly put into their no-law-suit arbitration open door BS so no one can ever sue them again.
Even if you opt out, most employees will not so you will never have enough people for a class action suit ever again.
They are trying to sell it "we'll pay you cash money in step 5" which is the only step that is not voluntary.
This is the same thing the credit card companies did when they had all those class actions against them.
Anon, weren't most of those lawsuits, about overtime payments? I've also noticed in the new handbook, a section instructing employees to keep track of the number of hours they work. It's possible at least some of those lawsuits could have been avoided if the employees had kept track of their hours. Then again, even if they had, the company would have gone with the "official numbers", over what the employee says. So it will be interesting to see how any disputs will actually be handled. I'm not worried I've not had any problems in that regard. The official hours usually line up with what I've track, and when there is a difference, it's usually a little more than what I've figured. All this is my opinion and does not represent RGIS.
Anonymous on Dec 28 referred to to the new arbitration policy. I think that may be the last straw for me. When a company as unethical as RGIS tries to take away your right to sue, you just have to wonder what human rights violations they have planned for the future.
It's happened just a couple of times since I quit. All I could really say was, "I'm sorry."
direct quote from the receipt acknowledgement form for the dispute resolution program:
"Under the Program both RGIS and I agree to use arbitration and forego any right either of us may have to pursue any claims or disputes covered bu the Program in state or federal court, INCLUDING THE RIGHT TO JOIN OR PARTICIPATE IN A CLASS, COLLECTIVE OR REPRESENTATIVE ACTION..."
biggest load of BS, but the sad part is most people will blindly sign it
@TL Too Sep. 3, 1037 AM:
No supervisor or manager can demand that you sign the meal waiver form. If you are hungry and want to take your legally entitled lunch they cannot deny you. As a team leader, if my inventory is aproaching the 5-hour mark but will likely be done shortly after, I ask my crew members if they want to take lunch or waive it. 9 times out of 10, they will choose to waive it and I pull out the waiver and remind them to sign it since they have consented. Don't sign the form if you were never given the choice. It is a legal document and should be respected as such.
boratfan1
Nice that you can wave meals, in New York you can not. You have to see what store mangers rant when you tell them we have to take a 30 minute break.
"You are within 20 minutes of finishing.." and they start calling or their bosses and mine.
Worse is when we go out of state to a state that waves meals and they insist that we wave em. Which we can't even if we went to Maine we are still covered by NY law.
Thank goodness they have gone to two decimal points on the time, 5.99 hours I don't need a 30 minute meal break.
Any ANGER out there? I left a few years ago but still remember the anger causing daily memories. Misfit, where should you go from here starting a new blog entry?
hmm, maybe a stronger warning against working there? That's tough legally as a blogger. Wish we could all just tell people - NO don't work there.
For those auditors who aren't aware, upper mgt eliminated the 5 person field payroll deparment many years ago. Just zapped em. gone in one random day. gave their work to fsc/salaried payroll over worked already, things got really screwed up. That's what happens at FSC. I noticed they have 27 IT jobs listed end of December. what did they do fire everyone? The ones they kept on can't do their jobs... not a surprise to anyone :-)
Misfit, you could also do one on how RGIS used to reward loyalty, but now treat a worker whose been there 15 years, the same as one who's been there only a couple of years. Or how some disctricts, sacrifice accuracy for high APH. There's so much that could be said about the company, it's not funny. The views presented are those of the author, and not those of RGIS.
i was shopping in target and found myself staring blankly at an RGIS area ticket. wow . it took a few minutes to recognize it. It felt so good to know I had absolutely NOTHING to do with it. amen
Currently employed with rgis. Not everyone uses those finger scanners because the chances of finding functioning finger scanners is scarce. I much prefer them.
I am very surprised to know how much RGIS has changed since you worked there. I have been working with them since September of 2012. I am very happy with he job, even though the hours are strange sometimes.
Thankfully the most drug use that I know of happening in my district is marijuana. Almost everybody smokes, and I don't blame them. When you are running from store to store it's nice to relax with a quick smoke. It's also a great bonding experience with your fellow employees. The few friends I have a great and some of the fastest counters we have. I agree that it really isn't something you should expect to be a great full time job, but for me it's a nice side job. Starting off at $9.50 and after only a few months being able to get knocked up to $10 is a huge bonus. I tell everyone I know to apply because there is no harm. It's probably one of the easiest jobs you will ever find, and the money is good.
it sucks at rgis now cause i cant batch at kohls. i think i be demoted back too auditor soon cause my aph been down lateley. i think i may get fired soon cause i have bad bo from stres sweatz and i aint gonna bee motivated too shower if i get my 50 cent hour raize taken away.
Does RGIS take away a lot of its peoples raises?
Is it true that 2 expert chicks showed up drunk and got into a fight with each other over a laser in a Sears parking lot before an inventory?
THe RGIS lasers look crappy. A lot of them have some electrical type tape wrapped around them. Most of the RGIS lasers look pretty beat up.
A lot of the RGIS lasers either dont work or they work for part of your shift then they stop working.
About half of the time lately I have not been using a laser. At some of the stores I have been at lately they have not even sent the lasers with us.
Its funny to see the top guns, experts and specialists get stuck hand scanning. Most of them get real crabby when they dont get to use a laser that day.
I love to hear the cherry picking RGIS favorites who usually get the best areas and most hours bitch and whine.
I so liked the blue shirt brtter
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